Investors wary of "slow panic" on growth after Cyprus rescue

LONDON (Reuters) - World markets have reacted calmly to the twists and turns of Cyprus's financial rescue in the last fortnight but many investors fear the economic fallout is yet to come.

UK has already returned to growth, says OECD

Triple-dip recession fears eased as a leading economic forecaster said the UK has already returned to growth, while officials reported the dominant services sector has expanded at its strongest pace in five months.

Cyprus Immunity Shows Libor Still Broken Rate: U.K. Credit

Libor ignored the crisis in Cyprus that’s roiling financial markets, showing the global benchmark for $300 trillion of securities remains divorced from reality six months after regulators laid out a plan to fix it.

Egypt to apply gains tax in QNB bid for NSGB

CAIRO (Reuters) - Shareholders and investment funds that make capital gains from Qatar National Bank's (QNB) bid for Cairo-based National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB) will face a 10 percent tax, Egypt's tax authority said on Tuesday.

Arab League summit showcases Qatar's swagger

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Qatar's emir looked over an assembly of Arab leaders Tuesday as both cordial host and impatient taskmaster.

Norway Becomes Petro-State as Investors Balk at Hidden AAA Risks

Norway, home to the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, is betting it can afford to ignore investor outrage.

India eases rules for foreign investors in government, corporate bonds

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will ease restrictions for foreign institutional investors in federal and corporate bonds next month to attract inflows and help fund a widening current account deficit, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday.

Buyout firms face squeeze as investors go direct for deals

LONDON (Reuters) - Tired of the hefty fees charged by private equity firms and wanting more say over what they buy, big investors like pension funds and insurers are taking matters into their own hands.

Nigeria further depletes oil savings for spending

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will make a second $1 billion withdrawal from its Excess Crude Account (ECA) by next month to distribute to its three tiers of government for projects, reducing its oil savings to $6.82 billion, the state minister for finance said on Thursday.

Euro zone in reverse, China speeds up

LONDON: The euro zone's economic downturn deepened this month, even before Cyprus' bailout troubles, but China's factories took a completely different path and moved up a gear, business surveys showed on Thursday.

Bernanke Put Here To Stay With QE Through Late-2014 And No Rate Hikes Until 2016: Goldman

Up until Cyprus erupted into the scene, the Federal Reserve had been the main protagonist in the market.

PIMCO cuts euro exposure as investors decry Cyprus bailout plan

LONDON (Reuters) - A demand that Cyprus seize money from depositors to help rescue the island's banks is a wake-up call for those who believed the euro zone crisis was solved, institutional investors and hedge funds said.

New Premier in China Faces Test on Economy

HONG KONG — China’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, entered the job on Friday inheriting a wobbling economy that could distract his government from its bold vows to clean up pollution and harness expanding towns and cities as an engine for growth.

France, Italy see leeway on budget rules at EU summit

(Reuters) - France and Italy won support for a slightly more growth-friendly interpretation of European Union budget rules at a summit on Thursday after French President Francois Hollande challenged German-driven fiscal austerity.

Norway Tariff Cuts to Lower Income by $7 Billion, Funds Say

Funds that have invested $5.6 billion in Norway’s gas pipelines said a government plan to cut their transportation fees by 90 percent would lower income by almost 40 billion kroner ($7 billion).

Sovereign Funds’ Assets to Gain 60% by 2016, UBS’s Castelli Says

Sovereign wealth funds will increase their assets by 60 percent over the next three years, bolstered by rising income from commodities and exports, according to UBS AG. (UBSN)

Norwegian oil fund dumps UK gilts

The Norwegian oil fund, one of the world’s biggest investors, dumped almost half of its holdings in UK gilts last year amid concerns about mounting Government debt levels and money printing.

Fugitive Hedge Fund Manager Homm Arrested at Gallery

Florian Wilhelm Jurgen Homm, the German hedge-fund manager who has been a fugitive for more than five years, was arrested at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence on U.S. fraud charges.

Cerberus seeks to tighten control over Japan's Seibu-sources

(Reuters) - Cerberus Capital Management LP will announce plans as early as Monday to raise its stake in Seibu Holdings Inc and install new directors to tighten its grip over the Japanese railway and property group, finance industry sources briefed on the plan said.

US banks stress test: Is Citigroup safer than JPMorgan?

NEW YORK: The newest stress tests for US banks produced scores that are at odds with other measures of lenders' safety, in another sign that some institutions may be too big for regulators to understand and executives to manage.

Norway’s public pension reflects investing shift away from Europe

Plenty of investors have abandoned Europe over the past couple of years, but one of the more telling examples came on Friday from the far north when Norway’s public pension fund reported that it was basically ditching France in favor of the Washington property market.

Prosperity Adds More Gazprom as Putin Pushes Improvement

Prosperity Capital Management Ltd., whose Russia fund beat 97 percent of peers in the past year, bought more shares of OAO Gazprom (OGZPY) on prospects Russia will push its gas export monopoly to be more efficient.

Banks, traders wary of two-step stress test

(Reuters) - Investors in U.S. bank stocks may be in for a volatile ride over the next two weeks as the Federal Reserve releases results of its annual stress tests of bank capital in two steps.

Korea Lures Investors as Covered Bonds Dwindle: Mortgages

Global investors are looking past record household debt and falling property prices to pile into South Korean mortgage bonds as a lack of supply in the world’s biggest markets boosts the allure of the securities.

Stock investors look past pricey Germany for Europe growth

LONDON: Smaller northern European stock markets are luring investors keen to escape fresh political and debt market risk in the south but loath to pay for entry into traditional safe-haven Germany.

Spending cut showdown threatens Barack Obama's second-term agenda

WASHINGTON: Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took effect, President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Saturday to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis that threatens the economy and his broader domestic policy agenda.

Swiss vote 'to crack down on excessive pay'

A plan to limit pay to executives based in Switzerland is expected to be passed on Sunday, as people vote on the referendum against “rip-offs” remuneration.

Libya Fund Helps SEC in Goldman Investigation

Libya's sovereign-wealth fund said it is cooperating with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its ongoing investigation into Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) over the securities firm's dealings with the fund when Col. Moammar Gadhafi was in power.

Blackstone’s Assant Says Buyout Funds Negative on France

Blackstone Group LP (BX)’s head of European private equity, Lionel Assant, said his industry is “absolutely negative” about investing in France because the country is delaying economic reforms.